Medical Technology

What is a stem cell? A stem cell is a
master cell, found in multi-cellular organisms, which has the ability to become one of the body’s 200+ types of cells. Stem cells have the ability to divide throughout its life and later on these stem cells can become specific cells to replace the cells that have died or have been lost. Stem cells are pretty much all-purpose cells that transform into a specific type of cell depending on what the body needs. Stem cells in the body create the ability for tissues to be replenished and fixed. A stem cell is pluripotent, which means that the cell can become any of the various types of cells in the body. Stem cells are important to the future of health care because they are used when something in the body goes wrong and instead of trying to fix it with dangerous drugs, doctors can replace it with stem cells to become whatever cell that is needed for recovery. Stem cells can be used in drug testing. For example, if a new drug has been made for the heart, tests would need to be conducted on animals to observe the effects of heart cells and if the drug does what it needs to do. The results would later have to be translated in the terms of the human body and it has to prove that the drug is safe to be used on humans. But stem cells can reduce the amount of work in testing a new drug. Stem cells could be forced to become human heart cells and the drug can be tested on these human heart cells in a dish. This way the results are exactly what will happen to the human heart; if the new drug will work or not. Scientists can then be 100% sure about what will happen when a drug is used. Stem cells can also be used for treating birth defects and for creating cells and tissues for transplants.

The four different kinds of stem cells are: adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, and cord blood stem cells. Adult stem cells are tissue-specific which means that cells can only be produced from a particular tissue or organ from where it came from. These stem cells are under research to find out if they can treat specific diseases like arthritis and healing fractures that were not able to heal before. Embryonic stem cells have helped scientists to understand diseases better and it has the potential for future therapies. For induced pluripotent stem cells, scientists have recently found out how to reprogram these stem cells to become specific ones that are needed and these stem cells are programmed to behave just like embryonic stem cells. Cord blood stem cells are abundant in blood making stem cells which are being used to replenish the blood system after treating specific cancers.

The present government policy concerning stem cell research is to support and fund research. President Obama wants all barriers to be removed that had stopped the growth of stem cell research in the past. He wants to give full support to stem cell research. Generally, the government does agree and support stem cell research.

It is true that there are lots of issues that go against stem cell research. The moral issues are when embryonic stem cells are used for research or treatment instead of it actually becoming a human. People say it is a loss of life. For religious issues, Catholics disagree about embryonic stem cell research because it destroys or creates human embryos, but they do support adult stem cell research because there is no creation or destruction of human embryos. Ethical issues arise like, should destructive embryonic research be allowed for all the positive benefits it has or should it not be allowed so human embryos can become living human beings. Some people say that stem cell research decreases the value that is given to life.

My personal opinion regarding this issue is that stem cell research is an awesome part of the medical field which has lots of potential in helping people dramatically in their lives. When I learned about what stem cells could do I was surprised of all the positive effects that it can have on people. My belief is that if you can't fix something, it is much better to just replace it. There are many people that are against stem cell research. Some people are against taking stem cells from the fetus and thus they decide to go against stem cell research. But there are other ways to extract stem cells from other parts of the body instead of taking it from the fetus or from destroying human embryos.

**Always take medical advice from your doctor, NOT from Internet sources. This is just for common knowledge.***


Bibliography
1. http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=10597
2. http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/cellular-microscopic/stem-cell5.htm
3. http://www.closerlookatstemcells.org/Stem_Cell_Types.htm
4. http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-5441.pdf
5. http://www.ehow.com/about_5245173_moral-issues-stem-cell-research.html
6. http://theaccidentaladvocate.com/2009/01/religious-groups%E2%80%99-official-positions-on-stem-cell-research/
7. http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/CIB/2002-03/03cib05.pdf